He Leads Me

HE LEADS ME

 

This was the title of the devotional from ODB today Dec 30, 2014 based on (Ps 23) that prompted this article. The author Dave Egner told the story of an incident that happened in Istanbul Turkey in 2005, where 1 sheep jumped off a cliff to its death, followed by nearly 1500 others. Not knowing which way to go, these other sheep just mindlessly followed the other members of the flock. We humans are often referred to as sheep, for example read (Is53:6) "All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Him (Jesus) the sins of us all". This fact just proves our need for a trustworthy Leader, and thank God He has given just such a Leader in Jesus Christ, once we by faith trust Him as our Lord and Savior. Jesus calls us to follow Him as our "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), as the original 12 men He called to follow Him as His disciples.

 

When King David wrote the twenty-third Psalm, and started it with "The Lord in my shepherd", and he certainly knew the life of a shepherd having been one for several years when he was young. So we can safely claim Jesus as our own personal shepherd just as David did, providing we have made the choice of accepting Him as Lord and Savior. He calls all of us, but always leaves the choice up to us to accept or reject Him. We can certainly not claim Him as our Shepherd, if we have not received Him as Lord and Savior. I know people who think that because they faithfully attend Sunday school and church, and give money to support missions etc. that therefore they qualify to claim Jesus as their Shepherd. But according to scriptures like (John 3:1-8), or (2 Cor 5:17-21), unless they are "born again" spiritually, and are truly "in Christ", then Jesus is not their Shepherd. Our author closes his article with a poem by Sanders "Like sheep that sometimes wander from the flock in tangled paths of life to lose their way, I need my Shepherd's hand and watchful eye to keep me always, lest I go astray". I think this is good advice for most of us who claim to be followers of Jesus and part of "the Body of Christ" on earth today. How easy it seems to be to get off the path, and get tangled up in some wrong teaching, or questionable church doctrine. We all need the guidance of our Shepherd for sure; then our author closed with these words, "The Lamb who died to save us is the Shepherd who lives to guide us". Well spoken I believe, and I leave you with this truth!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                30/12/14